Ive never heard of it but it sounds fantastic.

Pain Relief From Water Injections, from aims.

A new trial from Sweden has shown that injections of sterile water under the skin are effective in relieving lower back pain in the first stage of labour

99 women with severe lower back pain were divided into three groups. One third had four injections 0.1 ml of sterile water intracutaneously (into the skin) in the lower back. Another third had four injections of 0.5 ml sterile water subcutaneously (under the skin). The final group had four injections of 0.1ml of saline subcutaneously. This was the "placebo" group. The injections were given during a contraction while the women breathed gas and oxygen.

The midwife caring for a woman did not know which treatment she had had. The women were asked to mark on a chart their pain levels before the injections, and at intervals afterwards - 10, 45 and 90 minutes. In all three groups pain had gone down 10 minutes after the injections - but it went down most in the first two groups, and least in the third, placebo group.

At 45 minutes pain was still markedly reduced in the first two groups but had gone back almost to base level for the placebo. At 90 minutes Pain levels had risen in Group 1 (though not to pre-treatment level) and had risen much less in Group 2. Group 3 had as much pain as they started with.

However, women found the injections for the placebo less painful than they found injections for Groups 1 and 2. The authors wanted to see if subcutaneous injections of water would be less painful than intracutaneous, but there seemed to be no difference.

AIMS Comment

There have been earlier studies showing that these injections can relieve back pain in labour. As so many women are unwilling to expose their babies to the effects of drugs, it is surprising that they are not more widely offered.

Jean Robinson
Sterile Water Papules for "Back Labor" - Childbirth Class Five
Back labor occurs in about 25% of labors. While you can experience back pain in labor, the majority of these cases are not back labor. The best way to be able to tell the different between back pain in labor and back labor is whether or not the back pain is continuous, meaning it even occurs in between the contractions. Back labor pain will be continuous. The majority of the time back labor will be caused by a baby in a posterior presentation. This means that rather than being face down (Please note the head is down, we're talking which direction it faces.), it is face up or sunny side up.


90% of these babies will turn on their own in labor, some can be turned by physical means, including manually and with forceps. The pain of back labor is unique and separate from the contractions. The good news is that there are ways to take care of back pain in labor.

Using many of the positions that we've talked about in previous classes we can not only help to alleviate the pain of back labor but it will also help turn the baby to an anterior, or face down position.

Positions for Back Labor

hands and knees
lunges
pelvic tilt

Other Back Labor Comfort Measures

Water
Birth Ball
Counter Pressure
Double Hip Squeeze
Heat or cold therapy

Why not an epidural?

An epidural will usually take the pain of a posterior baby away. The draw back can be that the use of the epidural, while masking the pain, does not solve the problem: the posterior presentation. In cases like this it is possible that the baby will then be much less likely to rotate into an anterior position and can be the cause of a higher cesarean rate due to the relaxation of the uterus and/or pelvic muscles.

Sterile Papule Injections

These are four sterile water injections given around the sacrum, base of the spine. There are no medications in the injections and they can be done by a doctor, nurse, midwife, or anesthesiologist. The pain from the injection is stinging and lasts about 60 seconds. The area should not be rubbed because the blister of water that will form, much like when you have a TB test, is part of the process.

Many women report remarkable pain relief from this simple procedure. It can be very beneficial for those wishing to avoid epidural anesthesia and can be used in conjunction with IV medications, if desired, though many women find that they are not needed once this procedure has been done.
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